Chiopractic Adjustment

This video shows a standard chiropractic adjustment to help a patient who has suffered from sports injuries (snowboarding, skateboarding and surfing), a car accident four years back that gave his upper back whiplash (the car was rear ended) and stiffness from prolonged computer use being hunched over. The back is adjusted as well as the neck, a gentle massage is also performed and an electrical muscle stim helps to activate acupuncture points.

Video Transcript:

This is where the adjustments happen, okay so we're going to do an adjustment? Yep, get you treated, make sure the table fits you right. Any problems with your back or neck lately? My neck has been a little stiff, I kind of have that popping thing. Okay, not bad, the adjustment you gave the other day was good. Alright, let's lower you down. Try looking to your left, and then over to the right side. Okay, back down again. Your legs are even today. Good. I can see if there's any misalignment with your neck or pelvis that way. Try lifting up with your left leg, okay, and try on your right side now too. Let's do some adjusting to the low back.

Kind of work our way up through the spine. I'm adjusting where you can feel the joints restricted. That should be more flexible. It's that lack of motion that can irritate the spinal nerves. I can feel tightness there. And, take a breath, and let it blow all the way out. Okay, let's work our way through the rest of the spine. Some tension up high. That's good, I felt it pop. It's loosening up. A lot of people get tension in the upper back, up in here, it's pretty common. Is that more of a guy thing? Well, stress, and working at a computer or working bent forward. A lot of work activity, everything you do tends to be kind of crunched over, hunched over forward.

I'm going to use the muscle stim on a few different acupuncture points here too. Maybe you can describe what that does. I'm going to stimulate a few different meridians. There are 12 pain meridians in the body, and I'm going to do a technique that ties into all 12 so that it helps to treat your pain. A lot of times if you're having back pain, I'll do different points for low back and different points for neck and upper back. Sure. This is a muscle stim, it just gives a little electrical stimulation. It's a way to treat acupuncture points quickly without a needle. It's interesting, the acupuncture on this side I couldn't really feel as much, and on the left side it feels a little more like a buzz. Some of them will be a bit more sensitive. When you're doing acupuncture they call it ashi points, ones that are sensitive. A lot of times that's a diagnostic that the meridian is out of balance. Let's use the massager on your back too, does that feel okay? Yeah. This will work the muscles along the spine. Yeah, that feels good. Let's get the table back up again and check out your neck, get you on the bench.

Do you want me to check it by hand or we could do it with the drop piece too? Whichever works better for you. I don't mind by hand. I'll evaluate the motions of your neck vertebrae. Tilt you to the side, just let your neck relax for me. Now we'll check the other side. And just let it relax on my hand. So what is this? Can you describe the neck adjustment? You can feel restriction in the normal motion of the vertebrae. So I'm getting right on the locked up position in the spine, applying a little adjustment. It helps to free up the joint so it's more flexible and it also gets rid of any nerve irritation in that area, which can cause pain and headaches. Yeah, and the popping noises in the chiropractic neck adjustment, what is that? That's just the joint opening up like if you pop your knuckles. Is it gas or something in there? Yeah, it's a Synovial Joint (the most common and most movable type of joint in the body) and that sound is a crepitation, a pop from the sound of gas rushing in when we open up the joint. It's not bones crunching, it's just a normal sound that you get from an adjustment or stretch.

Let's have you lay face down and I'll do a little more with your neck. It can get stiff and painful when there is arthritis in the neck or it's really restricted and tight. Yeah, I guess my neck gets tight from the snowboarding, computer work and the car accident. Yeah, that will do it! I'm a good patient for that. So we're going to do a little adjustment up in the upper neck, and this time we'll use the drop section on the Thompson Table. So this will lift up, and just kind of drop. So turn your head to the left and we'll adjust it. Then look straight down again. Then you can check it afterwards, and it did loosen up, you can feel less tension in the joint. Oh yeah. And it usually feels better to you too. Oh yeah, it does. And then, on the other side, right up in here, rotate your head this way, to the right side. I'll adjust the upper neck, up here. Then you can look straight down again. Okay, good. The neck looks good there. Let's get you up here in just a second. A lot of times there's a lot of muscle tension in the upper back here too. It works out alright to work the muscles, get them relaxed. Let's get the table up, we're all set! Alright, cool! Thanks Greg. Yeah thanks, appreciate it!